Marvell's 4K Ultra HD SoC Targets Hybrid Boxes

PARIS -- Wherever in the world you live, your service providers -- whether cable, satellite, broadcast, or IPTV -- are tirelessly working to keep your loyalty with an endless wish list of new features, functions, and premium content. SoC suppliers, as a result, are under pressure to design solutions with feature sets that are not only up-to-the-minute, but also future-proof, as needed for next-generation set-top boxes.

In that spirit, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Marvell is unveiling at IBC in Amsterdam an Ultra HD SoC integrated with 12K DMIPS quad-core ARM CPU. Dubbed ARMADA 1500 PRO 4K, it’s the new baby in Marvell’s ARMADA family of video platform chips.

Integrated with a variety of interfaces (Gigabit Ethernet for IPTV, DVB-T/S input) the chip is designed for “hybrid boxes” that can receive terrestrial broadcast, pay TV, and IP content on the same platform.

Compared to Broadcom and STMicroelectronics, who have long dominated the pay TV set-top box market with their SoCs, Marvell is a relative newcomer. But as more and more over-the-top (OTT) content begins to cohabit with pay-TV premium content in an open platform, Edward Silva, senior product manager, says, “Video is a big growth area for Marvell.”

The company jumped in the TV set-top market by closely aligning itself with Google TV several years ago. Now, it’s making up ground on the set-top market worldwide. While still a close partner with Google in supporting Android TV and Google’s upcoming Android L, Marvell is also making its SoCs compliant with other “open” platforms such as Reference Design Kit (RDK) – originated by Comcast, Silva explained.

Emerging trends
Among pay-TV, satellite, and IPTV operators looking for next-gen set-tops, several trends are emerging.

First, operators who long clung to proprietary middleware are increasingly pushing for “open standards,” Silva says. Comcast-initiated RDK, for example, supports generic building blocks such as Linux OS, DRM by Adobe, and execution environments such as QT and WebKit.

Second, support for HEVC (H.265) is becoming a must for many operators’ new boxes, he said. They see it as critical for the upcoming 4K UHDTV era. In fact, all RFQs for boxes to be deployed starting 2015 require HEVC, he says.

Although 4K content is still limited, and the timing for 4K rollout differs from one operator to another, service providers “are watching the timeline carefully” in order to migrate from 1080p to 2160p. For that reason, Marvell made the new chip “pin compatible” with the company’s previous chip, ARMADA 1500 Pro, unveiled earlier this year. Marvell’s new ARMADA 1500 Pro 4K SoC features 3840 x 2160 p60 10 bit HEVC video decode capabilities.

Third, the processing power required for the new generation of set-tops is “jumping up to 10 to 15K DMIPs.” Operators worldwide are looking for much more powerful CPU/GPU performance. He describeds the ARMADA 1500 Pro 4K featuring 12K DMIPs 1.2GHz quad core ARM CA9 as “hitting the sweet spot.” The more processing power will enable TV operators to offer immersive TV apps.

Fourth, because content received on the main box can be viewed on multiple screens at home, WiFi connectivity on set-tops is becoming a must have for operators.

How about DPA protection? Need to protect against Differential Power Analysis that can 'sniff' out secret keys by looking at power differences during crypto functions... Very common in electronic transaction cards...

"Although 4K content is still limited, and the timing for 4K rollout differs from one operator to another, service providers "are watching the timeline carefully" in order to migrate from 1080p to 2160p. For that reason, Marvell made the new chip "pin compatible" with the company's previous chip, ARMADA 1500 Pro, unveiled earlier this year. Marvell's new ARMADA 1500 Pro 4K SoC features 3840 x 2160 p60 10 bit HEVC video decode capabilities."

It's a good thing that the service providers are waiting for that moment when FHD turns to 4K, because if they have the transition way faster, then if the standards change then their chip lineup designs would have to change too. It may be future-ready, but it cannot cope up with changing standards.

Both MIPS and PowerPC had ruled the set top box market for years. But I hear some speculation that both Broadcom (MIPS) and ST (own processor) -- two leaders of this market segment -- may be switching to ARM.

From what I've read over the years, they've been mostly ARM or PowerPC, now pretty much all ARM (I suspect). Marvell makes a lot of these, based on their ARM family which -- ironically -- they bought from Intel (XScale) who in turn had acquired it from DEC (StrongARM).

There may be some MIPS processors in STBs.

Most x86 processors use too much power for a fanless STB.

The real work of an STB nowadays is video decode, which generally needs to be done in a GPU. So the CPU is mostly doing networking and control -- it doesn't need x86 performance so use something cheap and cool.

JMO/YMMV

Update: I once used an IBM PPC 401GF which was originally designed for STBs. Delightful little processor: 32-bit PowerPC in an 80-pin TQFP with multiplexed address/data bus.

I was a little surprised to see an ARM chip being targeted for a high-end STB application. Is that unique to the new generation or am I behind the times? My impression was that previous STB devices tended to use Intel or other architectures. I knew that ARM was making significant advancement into areas like this, but I had not realized that they were mainstream.